Friendship Initiative

Group egoism and clan thinking – against those we want to put friendship, a friendship which goes beyond these borders and towards those who live different from ourselves. It is the Christian mercy’s core that I can learn something from anyone else, also if that someone does not possess special skills or positions in society. This learning I achieve through appreciation and love, by giving my time and myself.

The Friendship Initiative is about taking the risk to contact people living under completely other conditions than ourselves. If it is about helping, it is rather helping ourselves to connect with our own fragility, to recognize ourselves as people in need of friendship and love. This is the way to meet wiht and love others where they are, however they are. Every person bears this longing inside, but mostly hidden by fears and social hierachies.

Some of us go out every week for about an hour and bring tea to those living on Lund’s streets. It has mostly become beggars from Romania we meet and spend time with.
Friendship with people on the street – Magnus, magstrand92[at] gmail.com

“The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.” – Pope Francis in The Joy of the Gospel